The invention relates to apparatus for the production of yarn.
Synthetic fibers are commonly produced by extruding molten polymer through a spinneret. In order to produce yarns which have properties approximating those of wool or other natural materials, it is common practice to subject the extrudate from the spinneret to a texturing process. This can be accomplished by a variety of procedures known in the art, such as stuffer-box crimping, false twisting, and fluid jet texturing. One particularly effective procedure involves contacting the yarn to be textured with a high velocity fluid in a first turbulent zone. Subsequently, the yarn and the fluid are passed to an enlarged zone and then to a zone where the yarn is restrained and cooled. In the restraining zone individual stacked members, such as balls, are used to exert a force on the yarn to restrain the yarn, which is in the form of a yarn wad. The fluid escapes from the yarn through the voids between the stacked members and a textured yarn is removed from the restraining zone. Although this procedure produces a high quality textured yarn, a particularly troublesome problem involves loss of the stacked members from the restraining zone. Sudden disruption during the normal operation of the texturing process frequently cause the stacked members to be thrown from the restraining zone; however, most of the stacked members are ejected from the restraining zone when the yarn wad is not visible above the surface of the stacked members, and this latter situation most often occurs during string-up of the processing line.
It is important to prevent removal of the stacked members from the restraining zone because the height of the stacked members in the restraining zone is an important parameter of yarn quality. Further, recovering the stacked members from the floor and/or replacing them with new ones involves considerable expense, particularly where a number of such processing lines are used.
Although it would appear such a problem could be easily solved, this has not bee the case. In order for the stacked members to function properly, they must be free to act upon the yarn wad and, in addition, the restraining zone containing the stacked members must be designed to allow the operator to easily string up and maintain the equipment. It has been very difficult to satisfy both of these conditions simultaneously. However, the present invention achieves such a result.
An object of the invention is to eliminate the loss of stacked members from a restraining zone.
Another object of the invention is to eliminate the loss of stacked members from a restraining zone and to allow an operator to easily string up and maintain the equipment.
Other aspects, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon studying the drawings, specification, and the appended claims.